PhillyPolice Blog

Police Commissioner Ramsey’s Statement on the Arrest of Jonathan Garcia

As everyone now knows, former Officer Jonathan Garcia, a three-year veteran, assigned to the 17th Police District, was arrested yesterday on six counts of drug-related offenses. Today’s media coverage does not reflect the whole story of how this case came to be. This case is an excellent example of all of our efforts to fight corruption within this Department. Officer Garcia was selling heroin while on-duty and in full uniform. This is an absolute disgrace and a violation of all of the values and principles for which we stand. The Department first learned about Officer Garcia’s criminal activities when other Philadelphia Police officers came forward and reported him to Internal Affairs. A thorough investigation was carried out by a joint task force between the Philadelphia Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau and the FBI, which resulted in an indictment from the US Attorney’s Office. These officers saw what was going on and made the right decision by coming forward with this information. No one in this Police Department wants to have someone like Officer Garcia in his squad or unit. We must all have the courage to step forward, and root out corruption, and demonstrate to the public that we are capable of policing ourselves. This is our Police Department, not Officer Garcia’s or anyone like him who tarnishes our badge, our image and our mission. I want to extend my thanks and appreciation to these officers and to all of our men and women in blue who fight to do the right thing every day, and treat our uniform with pride. Honor, service and integrity, the Department’s values, start with each and every one of us.

Charles H. Ramsey, Police Commissioner

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Pete K.

” We must all have the courage to step forward, and root out corruption, and demonstrate to the public that we are capable of policing ourselves.” C. H. Ramsey. Officers such as myself and others stepped forward to report corruption at FIU over the Anthony Magsam case, and the department made every effort to sweep that case under the rug. What are you talking about?

The Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) is the nation's fourth largest police department, with over 6600 sworn members and 800 civilian personnel. The PPD is the primary law enforcement agency responsible for serving Philadelphia County, extending over 140 square-miles in which approximately 1.5 million reside.